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Neville Husband "I was told by Husband that you could easily be found hanged at Medomsley, and that that year, six boys had already hanged themselves."
In the UK, a pedophile ring has been uncovered by police investigating the Medomsley detention centre.

The ring reportedly operated in the 1970s and 1980s.

Detective Superintendent Paul Goundry has said: "We always knew this would be a major inquiry but the scale of it, and the sheer number of victims who have come forward, has been a shocking...

"There is growing evidence to suggest there was an organised paedophile ring operating in Medomsley."

Neville Husband and Leslie Johnson who worked at the centre were imprisoned for abusing boys and have since died.

Husband was imprisoned for eight years in 2003 for sexually abusing young male inmates between 1977 and 1984.

Reggie Kray's twin brother was Ronnie Kray, who was also a gangster and lover of boys.

Gangster Ronnie Kray and top politician Lord Boothby in 1963. Lord Boothby was close to all the top people from Churchill to Tom Driberg. Reportedly, Ronnie once said to a boy: "You will go home with Lord Boothby. You will do exactly what Lord Boothby wants. Or I will hurt you" (De Personen Encyclopedie)

The Kray twins, Ronnie and Reggie, were mafia-style British gangsters.

They had intimate connections to top people in the political world.

They were gay.

They were friends with a young boy called Brad Lane who has since died.

"The police uncovered a large-scale juvenile pimping operation centred on a house in a Suffolk village (Tattington) owned by Ronnie Kray.

(the twins had huge property interests in EastAnglia).

"Some of the boys were obtained via a close friend of Britten's in London, who named him as one of the beneficiaries of the 'service': other'customers' included Lord Boothby (who frequently shared boys with Ronnie Kray himself) and the record producer Joe Meek.

"At least two other people died in the aftermath of Bernard's murder as the twins sealed up the leaks."

Juveniles as young as 15, who are being held in adult jails, may be being recruited into child-sex rings.

"Two boys who were being held on remand at Doncaster prison were allowed into contact with a convicted paedophile called Belcher.

"Since being moved to Wetherby prison, in West Yorkshire, the boys have been receiving letters from Belcher and have been sent money last month by another man described as 'a colleague of the paedophile'."

The Chief Inspector of Prisons, General Sir David Ramsbotham, "has told friends he was recently horrified to discover that a juvenile offender, who had been the victim of a paedophile, was being held in the same unit of Cardiff prison as the man who abused him.

Stephen Shaw, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said: "There is a danger that we will begin to see in prisons a mirror image of the corruption and abuse that has been found in care homes."

16 comments:

MORE babies have to be taken into care to stop terrible parents turning them into monsters, the head of Barnardo's warned yesterday. [THAT'S BARNARDO'S JOB!]

Chief executive Martin Narey said it was better to place at-risk infants in good foster homes early. [CLOSER TO THE SATANIC ALTARS IN THE CELLAR] That would prevent the tots becoming damaged and a menace to society.

Mr Narey admitted his comments were "illiberal heresy" as he called for less stress on "fixing families that can't be fixed".

He was speaking in the wake of last week's court case involving a pair of young brothers who viciously attacked two other boys.

Both the accused were under the care of social services at the time. [Nareyland]

Mr Narey said: "It sounds terrible but I think we try too hard with children's birth parents. We can't keep trying to fix families that are completely broken. I have seen children sent back to homes that I certainly would not have sent them back to. I have been extremely surprised at decisions taken.

"If we really cared about the interests of the child, we would take children away as babies and put them into permanent adoptive families where we know they will have the best possible outcome. That view is seen as a heresy among social services, where the thinking is that if someone - a parent - has failed, they deserve another chance.

"My view is that we just need to take more children into care, if we really want to put the interests of the child first."

Mr Narey, the former director general of the Prison Service, added that if social workers intervened in this way quickly, "we would see far fewer problems".

The two brothers in court last week - aged 10 and 11 - admitted causing their victims grievous bodily harm with intent. The pair, from Edlington, South Yorks, will be sentenced in November after reports. ...

PRIME Minister Tony Blair's wife Cherie is to host a lecture at No 10 tonight by Prison Service director general Martin Narey, Downing Street announced.

Mr Blair will attend the lecture, along with experts on criminal justice, said the premier's official spokesman.

No other ministers would be present, the spokesman added.

Tonight's event is one of a series of lectures at No 10 chaired by Merseyside-born Mrs Blair.

Critics have claimed her role means she is muddling her role with that of a politicised ``first lady'' such as Hillary Clinton.

Downing Street has insisted that Mrs Blair merely acts as a ``moderator'' in discussions that follow the lectures. Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Norman Baker said: ``Cherie Blair is looking more and more like Britain's answer to Hillary Clinton - a super-minister without portfolio.'' ...

A "FRIGHTENING" number of children who go missing end up being sexually exploited, a charity warned yesterday.

Barnardo's said one in six of the 100,000 children in the UK who run away each year had been forced into prostitution and porn. And 55% of those helped by the charity had regularly gone missing.

Charity boss Martin Narey has launched a pounds 1.3million campaign to increase their specialist services. He said: "Children who repeatedly go missing are in grave danger of falling victim to those who prey on them for sexual gain."...

Jail rules are being tightened to stop "dangerous paedophile rings" forming among child sex offenders behind bars, the Prison Service said yesterday.

A number of paedophile networks are forming within prisons, where abusers are segregated from other inmates, according to new research commissioned by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.

In some cases, jailed paedophiles have managed to establish contact with outside abusers they had known before they were jailed and children have been brought in to visit.

It was suspected that these children were to be abused by the prisoners on their release and that the prison visit was intended to serve as some form of "preview".

In light of the evidence, the Prison Service said it is considering a number of measures designed to reduce the risk of sex offenders pursuing their activities while in prison.

The measures are likely to focus on prison visits, letters and use of the telephone.

The Prison Service will extend its use of SMART phone technology across the prison estate which will only allow prisoners to dial approved phone numbers.

Prison Service director of regimes, Mr Martin Narey, said the service had already taken "comprehensive action" to address the problem after being alerted to the danger of children visiting sex offenders last May.

"We only now allow visits (to paedophiles) from their own children," he said.

He admitted, however, that in the past it could have been possible for children to have been brought in to visit paedophiles who were not their parents.

"It could happen for a number of reasons. If someone comes to visit a prisoner and brings children with them, we would not normally challenge that for ordinary prisoners," he said.

"As soon as we had any indication that this might be happening, we moved very quickly to prevent it happening in future."

In an early preview of sections of the NSPCC report, entitled Grappling With Smoke, due to be officially released in November, the charity said 240 organised child sex abuse rings may be under investigation at any one time.

The report outlines how one of the rings studied in the research had formed in prison.

It said: "This group of abusers went on to commit a catalogue of abusive acts against a large number of children both in the UK and abroad."

While recognising the rights of prisoners to communicate with each other, the NSPCC is calling for the Prison Service to deter the formation of such dangerous groups.

The research conducted by Manchester University academic Mr Bernard Gallagher, an expert in organised child sex abuse, also highlights two cases where abusers in the community wrote to abusers in prison. In one case an abuser, adopting a false name, visited paedophiles in prison.

The report concluded the contacts were designed to fulfil a number of functions.

They helped set up new rings and "promoted" existing ones, and also thwarted police investigations through a number of methods including planning the harassment of witnesses in impending trials.

Later, the NSPCC said local authorities and police forces face the challenge of investigating one case of organised child sex abuse within their respective boundaries every year.

Mr Mike Taylor, NSPCC director of children's services, said: "As a country we have to recognise the scale of the problem and develop means of tackling it head on."

The NSPCC has serious concerns that local authorities and police forces on their own face severe difficulties in dealing effectively with the scale of the problem, Mr Taylor said.

"Investigating organised abuse can place huge demands on agency resources. A single case might, for example, involve scores of victims and several abusers." ...

POP pervert Jonathan King has helped set up a vile paedophile ring INSIDE the jail where he is doing time for preying on boys, the Sunday People can reveal.

The shamed music millionaire and three twisted pals hatched a sinister plot to smuggle in pictures of scantily-clad youngsters.

Vigilant prison officers blocked the sickening scheme by King, 58, and his disgusting henchmen - one a former radio DJ like him.

But bosses at Maidstone prison, Kent, are so concerned that they are keeping the men under close watch - and King could be moved to another jail if the gang tries to revive its evil plans.

He and his fellow perverts were caught trying to have catalogues and holiday brochures posted in to them so they could drool over pictures of children modelling underwear and in bathing gear.

A prison officer said last night: "Paedophiles use this seemingly harmless material like pornography. King's friendships and secretive behaviour set off alarm bells.

"We watched the men like hawks and nipped it in the bud before the ring got out of hand.

"Talks have now taken place to discuss King's future at the prison. If the men break the rules they could be split up and even transferred."

King was sentenced to seven years last November for sex attacks on boys aged 13 to 16. Behind bars he hit it off with smooth-talking Roger Pond, who once had a show on BBC Radio Kent.

Pond, 48, got 14 years in 1999 for abusing 14 children aged seven to 16. His first victim was a 15-year-old girl, attacked after a choir trip to Canterbury Cathedral.

Another ring member was Mark Towner, 52, sentenced to eight years for having sex with a 13-year-old girl in Cambodia.He became the first "sex tourist" to be prosecuted under laws allowing charges to be brought in this country for offences abroad.

The fourth member of the disgusting group is Peter Ebbels, 46, who is serving life for rape.

The plot is just the latest of King's jail exploits exposed by the Sunday People. We revealed how he bribed an inmate to be his minder after a fellow lag attacked him.

We also told how he had the nerve to run a Pop Idol-style talent contest behind bars.

A Prison Service spokesman said: "We do not discuss individual prisoners." ...

TWO women claim they were victims of a secret Midland paedophile ring involving some of Britain's most notorious sex attackers.

The mothers claim they were drugged and abused when they were children - and have contacted police about their allegations.

The alleged victims alerted cops to their abusive past after Austin Griffiths, 77, was jailed for 11 years for paedophile offences.

The grandad, formerly from Balsall Heath, Birmingham, was found guilty of sexually abusing a young girl and boy at Plymouth Crown Court in December 2004.

Now the women claim he was a member of a Midland paedophile ring which included Birmingham pervert Arthur Birch, millionaire businessman William Goad - dubbed Britain's worst paedophile - and sex beast Eddie Pratt.

But despite contacting Devon and Cornwall police about the alleged ring, the women say detectives have ignored their claims.

They have now made a formal complaint to the Independent Police Complaints Commission about their treatment.

One of the women said: "We just want to expose the awful crimes that Austin Griffiths has committed and to make people aware of his connections with other paedophiles.

"He had been seen out drinking with Arthur Birch on several occasions and was known to keep his company.

"He ran a market stall in Plymouth with William Goad, and a shop in Stoke with him where they sold second-hand videos.

"He also associated with Eddie Pratt, who has been linked to Goad. The connections we have unravelled are alarming.

"It is outrageous that Griffiths was allowed to carry out this child sex abuse for so long without anyone reporting him.

"He might be in jail now but so much hasn't come out about him yet.

"We want police and social services to re-open the files and really bring him to justice.

"There are so many other people that he associated with who should also be investigated. We believe some of these are involved in paedophilia."

The women say Griffiths' conviction convinced them that they may have been among his victims as children.

"We believe we could have been sexually abused by this ring when we were young kids," one said.

"When Griffiths was arrested, we learned more about his connections and realised that we had been caught up in this terrible world.

"Neither of us can remember huge chunks of our younger years and we believe we could have been drugged and abused then."

Griffiths left the Midlands and moved to Plymouth in the 1980s with his second wife Pat. But he regularly returned to the region to visit his family.

He did not hold down regular employment but worked for Midland Counties dairies in the 1960s and was a lorry driver for a while, as well as working with Goad.

Arthur Birch was convicted of seven indecent assaults on children and three serious sexual offences, and was jailed for eight years in 2001.

The former care worker at the Tennal Assessment Centre in Har-borne, Birmingham, was one of five men jailed for a total of 3 7 years for carrying out a campaign of sexual abuse. He died in prison aged 82.

William Goad is currently serving a life sentence for child abuse.

The 61 year-old, from Plymouth, abused 3,500 boys over 40 years and has been named Britain's worst paedophile.

He amassed a fortune through a chain of discount stores and indoor markets and is believed to have a personal fortune worth pounds 2 5 million.

He was described by prosecuting counsel as 'a voracious, predatory and violent homosexual paedophile'.

Suspected child abuser Eddie Pratt was an associate of Goad.

Police planned to question him about his connections to the paedophile but he hanged himself at his bar in France last year.

No-one at Devon and Cornwall Police was available to comment last night. ...

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Years+of+sbuse+were+suspected.-a0155079168Evening Chronicle (Newcastle, England) - November 28, 2006Medomsley: Years of abuse were suspected

It was meant to give young offenders a short, sharp shock.

Instead, many were left scarred for life, haunted by a brutal catalogue of sex attacks.

The abuse of inmates at the Medomsley Detention Centre, in Consett, County Durham, came to light when former kitchen officer Neville Husband was convicted of molesting a string of young lads in the 1970s and 1980s.

But today, fresh revelations expose the shocking scale of the abuse suffered behind the bars of the now-closed juvenile jail.

Secret papers obtained by the Chronicle state that prison officers suspected married father-of-one Husband was preying on inmates but did nothing.

Documents hidden for nearly 40 years reveal Husband, who went on to become a church minister in Gateshead, had been investigated for importing child pornography a decade before he staged his attacks.

Statements by ex-colleagues tell how the 69-year-old, currently serving a 10-year jail term, had regular shipments of hardcore porn sent to him at Medomsley.

And a second officer was also convicted of indecently assaulting a male prisoner, who had been introduced to him by Husband, of Shotley Bridge.

The pair continued to visit and abuse the same boy after he was released from custody.

Transcripts of police interviews also reveal thousands of indecent pictures of children were found on computers seized from Husband's home and his United Reformed Church office.

Medomsley Detention Centre was built in 1898 but wasn't acquired by the Prison Commission until 1959.

Employing just 11 staff, a 1977 inspection report described Medomsley as 'Dickensian' and read: "The detention centre has never hit the headlines and within the Prison Department has apparently been accepted as a place where nothing of any import ever occurs and one which is unlikely to cause any problems."

Husband, now dubbed the 'Medomsley monster', worked at the jail as a kitchen officer. After 27 years in the prison service, he became a United Reformed Church minister in Gateshead in 1994.

But it was not until 2001 that his perverted past came back to haunt him. Previously silenced by shame, some of his victims spoke out about the ordeal they suffered decades earlier.

Husband was convicted by a Newcastle Crown Court jury of molesting five boys and jailed for eight years. Publicity surrounding the trial encouraged others to come forward and he was jailed for a further two years on additional charges.

But now we can reveal Husband's depraved interest in young boys was apparent years earlier.

A report reveals police probed Husband for importing homosexual pornographic pictures while working at a borstal in Dorset.

The document, signed by the governor of HM Borstal Portland, reads: "The police showed me sample photographs of men in obscene and lewd postures, a signed order form and a signed cheque for 20/- which they allege was sent to an address in Sweden by Officer Husband.

"The police interviewed Officer Husband at Portland police station and he admitted sending for a series of photographs, the sample of the series he ordered pictured two naked men, apparently engaged in homosexual activity. Immediately following the police interview Husband saw me privately and informed me of the statement he had made to the police. He told me ( and the police ( that he was considering writing a book on homosexuality and he had sent for the photos to assist to this end. Officer Husband is a good cook and baker, a married man with one child, buff, hearty and something of a comedian."

A second document dated July 1967 reveals no further action was taken by the police and Husband was allowed to continue working with children in the prison service.

The allegations made against him in 1967 were brought up again when he was quizzed regarding sex abuse claims in 2001. We have accessed a transcript of a police interview with Husband, during which he admits the pornography he imported showed images of children.

An officer from Consett police station asks him: "And I understand that while you were in Portland, an investigation took place regarding you importing pornographic pictures of teenage boys, is that correct?"

Husband replies: "There was, yes there was." Seconds later, Husband, who claimed he was writing a book about homosexuality, adds: "The pornography at that time was, it was soft porn, but again I wasn't aware that it was boys because you got sent what you got sent."

The deputy governor at Portland while Husband was investigated, James Millar Reid, went on to become the governor at Medomsley.

Statements given to police by prison officers who worked with Husband suggest suspicions were rife about his cravings for young boys, who he went on to molest in the kitchens he ran.

One by an officer who served at Medomsley in 1978, reads: "I don't know why but all the governors thought very highly of Husband and seemed to look after him.

"For example, on a regular basis on rotation we would thoroughly search various areas within the centre. This was to look for cigarettes and alcohol. All main areas of the prison were searched except for the kitchen area. The prison management would not allow anyone but Husband to have access to the kitchen area."

After Husband left Medomsley, a search of the kitchen quarters discovered sex toys, pornography and rubber underwear in a filing cabinet. Victims' statements, many of which are too distressing for us to print, detail how Husband abused them in the kitchen area.

The officer's statement adds: "There were always very strong rumours that Neville Husband was homosexual and that he was sexually abusing boys who were working with him in the kitchen. This was general knowledge among staff and boys in the centre.

"On a night time Husband would usually keep one boy back with him after the others had been dismissed and we all felt sorry for that boy. Nobody reported their suspicions to anyone because Husband was so close to, and seemed to be supported by the governors and senior management." Another officer told how he had to take time off work because of Husband's "overbearing attitude" and that he was "too scared" to report rumours of him abusing boys.

Our dossier also reveals Husband arranged for pornography to be sent to him. A statement given to police by one of his ex-colleagues reads: "For some time I was employed as a gate officer and was surprised to see Husband was receiving large quantities of post containing homosexual pornography.

"Sometime the envelopes were not sealed and I used to look at the magazines and burn them without telling Husband. One package contained a video. I looked at this and found it was hardcore gay porn, again I burned it." ...

A number of former Medomsley workers have told how Husband's closest friend in the jail was a storeman called Leslie Johnston who has also been convicted of indecent assault on an inmate at the detention centre. He revealed this while being interviewed by police in the run-up to Husband's trial.

It states: "After a while, Neville and I became quite good friends. We had a mutual interest in religion." He adds: "We joined the freemasons at Chopwell and got on quite well together. We sometimes went out together with our wives to social functions."

Johnston's statement went on: "At one stage I think Neville suggested that he had a lad working in the kitchen who he thought would be suitable to assist me in the stores department. Whilst XXXX was working with me in the stores I developed a sexual relationship with him." He adds: "As a result of this I was convicted at court of indecent assault and subsequently left the prison service."

In the same statement, Johnston tells how he knew Husband had abused the same boy and that the pair both visited the victim once he had been released from prison.

Husband was interviewed by police on a number of occasions. The transcript of one quiz, seen by us, tell how explicit videos of children were taken from his house in 1999.

In September 2001, he was arrested on suspicion of possessing indecent photographs of children.

His home PC, disks, zip-disks and a laptop from the United Reformed Church office on Cromer Avenue, Gateshead, had all been seized.

During the interview, Husband is told detectives discovered thousands of indecent images of children, some of which were stored on disks labelled with phoney titles relating to church business.

The Home Office declines to comment on our investigation. No-one at the United Reformed Church was available for comment....

A CHURCH minister has been suspended from his post while police investigate a number of alleged sexual assaults on teenage boys.

The Rev Neville Husband, of Shotley Bridge, Co Durham, was suspended by the United Reformed Church after his arrest.

Mr Husband, who is minister of the Brighton Road and Cromer Avenue URC churches in Gateshead, was working as a prison officer and catering staff member at Medomsley Detention Centre, near Consett, County Durham, at the time of the alleged incidents.

The centre closed in 1987.

Detective Inspector Simon Orton, of Durham Police, said yesterday, "In June of this year, the Reverend Neville Husband, 63, was arrested in connection with an investigation into allegations of assault on teenage boys between 1975 and 1981 at Medomsley Detention Centre in Co Durham.

"The detention centre closed some years ago but in the mid-1970s Mr Husband was a prison officer and a member of the catering staff at Medomsley.

"Mr Husband has since become an ordained minister of the United Reformed Church with responsibility for two churches in Gateshead.

"Police inquiries into the assault allegation are continuing. As part of that investigation, computer and other material were seized from Mr Husband's home in Co Durham.

"In relation to that computer material, investigators have submitted a file to the Crown Prosecution Service for their consideration."

A URC spokesman said yesterday, "In the rare event that a serious allegation is made in relation to a minister of the United Reformed Church, it is the practice of the church to suspend the minister in question without prejudice until the result of the investigations becomes clear.

"In accordance with that practice, when the church learned that allegations had been made against Neville Husband, a minister of two local churches in the Northern Synod, he was immediately suspended without prejudice from his duties, though it is our understanding that he denies the allegations."

Mr Husband, a minister for seven years, was yesterday unavailable for comment.

His colleague, the Rev Anthony Haws, who has parishes in Blackhill, Consett and Chester-le-Street, said, "I am amazed at this news. I know him as a family man." ...

A PERVERT ex-prison officer will not face fresh sex abuse charges - because it is not in the public interest.

But the decision not to prosecute Neville Husband has been slammed by MPs and victims after it emerged the disgraced churchman could walk free from prison within months.

Husband is serving a 10-year sentence for a horrific campaign of abuse on juvenile inmates at the former Medomsley Detention Centre, in Consett, County Durham, in the 1970s and 1980s.

Now, the Chronicle can reveal he was re-arrested after police received new allegations that he went on to molest a boy nearly a decade later inside a different jail.

But, despite gathering enough evidence to take the case through the courts, prosecutors have withdrawn it, claiming that securing a fresh conviction would "not be in the public interest".

Legal representatives for the alleged victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, have branded the decision an "insult", after learning Husband will be eligible for parole in April.

David Greenwood, of York-based solicitors firm Jordan's, said: "I have to question how it can be in the public interest to discontinue a case where it is alleged a serial abuser has abused another young inmate at a different prison to the one where he committed the crimes he is serving his sentence for."

Married father-of-one Husband, now 69, of Shotley Bridge, County Durham, ran the kitchens at Medomsley from 1975 to 1981 and later became a minister of Brighton Road and Cromer Avenue URC churches in Gateshead.

It was during his time at the borstal that the Freemason preyed on inmates.

In 2001, five victims broke their silence and told of their ordeal. He was arrested and more than 5,000 images-mostly depicting teenage gay sex - were found on a computer at his Shotley Bridge home and on a laptop in his church study at Bensham, Gateshead.

In 2003, he was convicted 10 charges of indecent assault and one of a serious sexual assault on inmates aged between 16-19. The publicity surrounding the 10-day trial inspired more victims to come forward and in 2005, he was sentenced to a further two years behind bars after admitting attacks on four more boys.

Husband was also investigated for importing gay child pornography into the prison service 10 years before he worked at Medomsley.

The fresh allegation relates to when Husband was seconded as an officer at Deerbolt in Durham on May 1, 1987.

It is understood he left Medomsley and worked at Frankland prison, before being sent to Deerbolt to serve for one month.

Detectives investigated the case and prepared a file for the Crown Prosecution Service. Husband was arrested and charged with indecent assault inside Full Sutton prison and a hearing was scheduled at South Durham Magistrates' Court.

But at that hearing CPS lawyers told the court they wanted to withdraw the case, despite having sufficient evidence to progress.

A CPS spokeswoman said: "While initially a charge of indecent assault was preferred, consideration was given to whether it was in the public interest to pursue this new matter in view of the existing sentence.

"The decision was made that the public interest did not require the continuation of the present case.

"Accordingly, the proceedings have been discontinued and the complainant has been informed of this by the police."

Mr Greenwood added: "We will continue the fight for justice. This man is a sexual predator who has taken full advantage of his position and who is to say he won't do that again when he is released?"

Richard Hall, 44, was one of the victims in Husband's second prosecution and waived his right to anonymity to speak to the Chronicle.

He said: "I am bitterly disappointed with the decision. I feel for the alleged victim in this case and for all the historic victims of Husband."

Mr Hall's MP Nick Brown is backing a call for a public inquiry. North Tyneside MP Stephen Byers has already pushed for the laws on when victims can sue for compensation to be changed....

Grieving mum Christine Thompson has rejected claims her son killed himself, believing he was murdered.

She says injuries on son Kane Martin Davis' body were inconsistent with a fall from the bridge.

Kane's body was found near Hownsgill Viaduct, a former railway bridge known locally as Gill Bridge, on the outskirts of Consett on March 7.

Kane, who lived with his mother and family in North Magdelene, Medomsley, near Consett, was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics who alerted the police.

The former Moorside Comprehensive School pupil was taken to the University Hospital of North Durham in Durham City where a post mortem was carried out and later Durham Police said his death was not being treated as suspicious.

But Ms Thompson, 37, who works in sales, said today: "At his funeral someone told me Kane did not jump or fall. I was in a state and did not take it in. Later those words came back and I started to question things.

"Kane was found at the bottom of a 180ft bridge. He had no broken bones, and he had two marks on his forehead, a bruised nose, a black eye, two bust lips and a bruised right ear.

"He also had no internal injuries. I was told he was found in a shopping trolley. I do not believe he killed himself and never will.

"When I saw his body it looked as though he had been in a fight. I know my son was murdered and one day I will prove it."

Kane, who had three brothers, Joel, 20, Nick, 19, Matthew, 12, and a sister, Lynette, 10, was upset about an email he had from his ex girlfriend the day before his death, said his mum.

She said: "But we talked and he was fine. The day of his death he was going to see about an apprenticeship he had applied for.

"He had no money left so I gave him a few pounds and my last words to him were 'I'm not that bad, am I?' He smiled his cheeky smile and replied 'I've got my keys.'

"He left the house at lunch time. I had to go out and passed him two minutes from his destination, which was the last time I saw my baby alive. When I returned home I had a bad feeling so I tried to phone him. There was no answer so I kept trying. After a while I went looking for him and at 10pm I phoned the police.

"Two officers came to the house and after a while told me they had found the body of a young lad at the bottom of the Gill Bridge.

"They would not let me see him until 2pm the next day. I had to identify his body, his brother Nick was with me. I went in to shock and never questioned things so when they said he had jumped I did not ask why.

"Kane was found at 5pm on a bright day and had been there a couple of hours. How come no-one saw him?

"There were a lot of people at Kane's funeral and I did not know them all. Kane had no reason to jump, he was starting the apprenticeship and wanted to start his own business."

The night before his death, she said, Kane updated his entry on Bebo, a next generation social network site where members keep in touch with college friends and share photos.

She said: "The things he wrote were not the things someone that was suicidal would write."

A Durham Police spokesman said today: "The incident has been thoroughly investigated and there are no suspicious circumstances. We are currently awaiting the results of toxicology tests and once they are completed a full inquest will be arranged. We can fully understand his mother's grief but there are no indications to back such claims." ...